The museum did a good job connecting the broad aspects of history to the Civil Rights movement and after visiting it, I want to continue to learn about the importance of the Civil Rights movement and its impact on world history. I hope these experiences will allow me to even teach others about the importance of the Civil Rights movement.

From a historical perspective, visiting the 16th Street Baptist Church and Selma were the most important moments of this journey for me because these are places that signify a movement whose march is still continuing. Today, walking in the footsteps of all those significant people, along with people whose names I may never know, inspired me to take more action for the similar problems that exist today.

I was raised to believe that everyone is created equal, no matter their skin color or sexuality. This is why the HRC is so important to me. The people at this organization are fighting hard for equality...But reality can be changed, and the HRC is trying to do just that. I urge everyone to either donate or volunteer with this great organization, because civil rights are human rights.

Our teens have been inundated with information, their eyes open to the complexities of the world, to the challenges that still require solutions, and the grey areas that they'll grapple with for a lifetime. And yet, when we recite the Sh'ma, we're reminded that at the core of the human experience is how we hear one another.

This Shabbat experience made me appreciate everything I have in my Jewish community. It also helped me further develop my Jewish identity, better understanding the different Jewish communities that exist around the country.

As we head towards our final Shabbat together, we think of Ms. Bland’s sentiment that each one of us is an important piece of the puzzle in building a better world. While we will go our separate ways on Sunday, we know that the march towards this better world continues.

After volunteering at Big House Books and learning more about the systematic oppression people of color face, the Mitzvah Corps Civil Rights Journey spent some time looking at different facts about incarceration, recidivism, literacy rates, socioeconomic status, and success in autonomy from the book Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women by Cari Lynn and Susan Burton.

I decided to take this as a valuable learning opportunity to truly listen to someone with such different opinions from mine. Instead of interjecting where I disagreed, I simply sat back and let the man talk.